Russia vocab

Centralized economic planning (command economy)

An economic model where a central government authority makes all key decisions regarding the production, pricing, and distribution of goods and services

Cold War

A prolonged period of geopolitical, ideological, and economic rivalry between the Soviet Union (USSR)—led from Moscow—and the United States, along with their respective allies, lasting roughly from 1947 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991

Permafrost

Seasonally frozen ground limiting farming and construction

Autonomous areas (okrugs & oblasts)

Administrative regions created to give specific ethnic minority groups a degree of self-governance and cultural protection

Glasnost & Perestroika

Greater openness; economic restructuring

Twin reform policies introduced in the Soviet Union during the mid-1980s by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to revitalize the nation's stagnant political and economic systems

Russification

The policy of promoting Russian culture and language in non-Russian territories, often at the expense of local identities

Denuclearization

The act, process, or policy of removing, dismantling, or prohibiting nuclear weapons and related nuclear programs from a specific region, country, or the entire world

Countries within the Russian Domain

Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia

Developed Area Triangle

Southwest region of Russia: most economic activity, population, and agriculture in the country

3 factors affecting Russian climate

• Latitudinal Position

• Continental Position

• Location of major mountains

Language in Russia

• Slavic

• Finno-Ugric (Finnish) in the north

• Altaic (Tatars & Turkic peoples)

Religions in Russia

• Orthodox Christianity

• Protestant Christianity

• 20-25 million Sunni Muslims live in the North Caucasus

• Over 1 million Jews, mostly in larger western cities

Russian resources

• Petroleum

• Metal

• Natural gas

• Coal

• Farmland

Russian Climate

Continental, temperature extremes, cold, dry

Biomes of Russia

• Tundra (mosses, lichens) north

• Taiga (coniferous forest zone) south

• Permafrost in Eastern Siberia